During twilight on Saturday evening (18 April) the 1.7-day crescent moon passed within 5.5 deg of the planet Venus. The conjunction was photographed with a Sony A7iii camera and Olympus OM 135mm f/2.8 lens, and an Olympus E-M1iii camera and 75mm f/1.8 lens. Both cameras were hand held.
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| E-M1iii + 75mm f/1.8 |
About 1/2-hour later:
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| Sony A7iii + OM 135mm f/2.8 |
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| OM 135mm (left), Olympus 75mm (right) |
The centerpiece of the constellation Coma Berenices is the open star-cluster known as Melotte 111, or the Coma Star Cluster. At 280 ly distant , it is the second-closest recognizable open cluster, after the Hyades cluster.
The following images were obtained with a Sony A7iii camera and an Olympus 135mm f/2.8 lens riding on an iOptron SmartEQ Pro+ mount. The measured sky brightness was 19.77 mpsas (location: Santa Fe).
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| Melotte 111, the Coma Star Cluster. |
This image was obtained with a Hoya Sparkle-6 filter. This filter is way too aggressive for a lens with this focal length (135 mm), but it really brings out the relative colors of the stars.
Here is a finder chart showing the location of Melotte 111 (Coma Star Cluster) relative to other constellations in the evening sky (Big Dipper on the left, Leo on the right):
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| credit: SkySafariAstronomy.com |
This finder chart also hilights three nearby stars: Lalande 21185, Wolf 359, and Ross 128.
Lalande 21185 is the fourth closest star system after the Alpha Centauri system, Barnard's Star, and Wolf 359. It is 8.3 ly distant.
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| Lalande 21185 (circled), the fourth closest star system. |
Ross 128 is the 11th closest star system, at 11.0 ly, and magnitude 11.1 (triple 11's!).
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| Ross 128 (circled), the 11th closest star system. |
Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) is visible low in the east at the beginning of astronomical dawn (about 5 am MDT). The name derives from the Panoramic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response Sytem observatory in Hawaii Between the neighborhood rooftops, trees, and power lines, getting a clear view is a challenge from my location in Santa Fe. The comet is currently about magnitude 4.5 and is visible with binoculars. I could easily see the head but not the tail with a 6x30 binocular.
The following images were obtained with an Olympus E-M1iii camera and 75mm f/1.8 lens.
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| current location in the dawn sky. credit: SkySafariAstronomy.com |
Venus, at magnitude -3.9, is currently brighter than Jupiter (-2.2) and Sirius (-1.4). From my location, Venus sets behind the Bristol Head ridgeline around 8:10 pm MDT.
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| Venus setting |
A clear moonless night was a welcome sight during a brief return to Creede. The sky seemed exceptionally dark, but I did not have a sky-brightness meter to measure it. My guess is 21+ mpsas.
The Zodiacal Light is a diffuse glow caused by sunlight reflecting off cosmic dust in Earth's orbital plane. Most of this dust is thought to originate from the planet Mars.
These images were obtained with an Olympus E-P5 camera with an Olympus 12mm f/2 lens and a Hoya Sparkle-6 filter.
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| The Pleiades touched by Zodiacal Light over Bristol Head. |
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| Orion and Sirius setting over Bristol Head |
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| Orion, Sirius, and Jupiter (top) |
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| Easter-morning moon |
The Easter-morning photo was taken with a Lumix 12-60mm lens.
I wanted to try some solar photography with a Lunt Solar Wedge on the infini D50 refractor, but there is a problem. The Solar Wedge works well visually, but there is not quite enough in-travel to achieve focus with micro-four-thirds cameras. The fix for this problem is to add a Barlow element to push the focal plane farther out. This also increases magnification.
I tried two configurations: a Celestron Omni 2x Barlow element screwed onto a 1" nosepiece, and a 1.5x Magic Dakin Barlow (MDB) screwed directly to the T-adapter. The resultant magnifications were 2.0x for the Celestron, and 1.67x for the MDB.
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| 27 March. Celestron Omni Barlow. |
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| 28 March. Magic Dakin Barlow. Through thin clouds. |
The MDB was also tested on the moon with a normal mirror diagonal.
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| 27 March |
The results with this 50-mm f/10.8 refractor are surprisingly good. There is a small amount of green fringing visible on the moon's limb.
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| Olympus E-M5iii with the 1.5x Magic Dakin Barlow |
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| Olympus e-M5iii with the Celestron Omni Barlow |
There is now about 15 mm of focuser travel still available on the infini D50 when using the MDB (and Celestron Barlow).
Lalande 21185 is a magnitude-7.5 red-dwarf star in the constellation Ursa Major. It lies about midway between the constellation Leo and the Big Dipper asterism. At a distance of 8.3 ly, it is the fourth nearest star system, but the sixth-nearest star, because the Alpha Centauri system consists of three stars. The closest member of the Alpha Centauri trio is Proxima Centauri, a magnitude-11 red dwarf. Next comes Barnard's Star, a magnitude-9.5 red dwarf, then Wolf 359, a magnitude-13.5 red dwarf, and then Lalande 21185. From this list of the six nearest stars, four of them are too faint to be seen with the unaided eye.
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| Location of Lalande 21185. credit: SkySafariAstronomy.com |
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| Lalande 21185 is circled. Olympus E-M1iii + Lumix 20mm f/1.7 lens. |
In the image above, the constellation Leo is in the bottom half and the location of Lalande 21185 is marked with a circle near the top. Lalande 21185 is the brightest red dwarf star in the northern celestial hemisphere. It can be seen with binoculars.
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| Lalande 21185 is at the center. Sightron infini D50 telescope (540mm focal length) |
